Blog #6 Writing in College
In highschool, I had read academic journal articles and scholarly articles for things like research essays. The worrrssttt ones are scientific journals. I remember senior year I was trying to write a research paper on animal agriculture and its affect on the environment and I had to go through so many papers with tons of academic science-y language. It kinda sucked.
The good news about this scholarly article is that it's not about science! (even though I love science) So I found that it was easier to read than I was expecting due to my bad experience. But there were some things that made it challenging. The language first of all is pretty difficult. It's not one of those casual reads. Also, all the information is just really dense. The article was like 11 pages of dense information. Kind of scary.
I do kind of enjoy the fact that the information isn't subjective though. I like the way Chomsky writes subjectively, but I also feel like sometimes objective writing is nice because you get straight to the point. There's no fluff. Also, it's interesting that we aren't the primary audience, and yet we can read it and take something from it.
Teresa Thonney writes with a LOT of references to other scholarly writing. In her second point titled "Academic Writers State the Value of Their Work and Announce the Plan for Their Papers," she includes tons of article titles/subjects and she uses these to appeal to logos and even a little ethos because she uses such a big variety of article subjects that it makes her seem very knowledgeable, even though I realize she's only introducing them to prove her point.
I also noticed that because this is a very objective, scholarly/academic article, it follows a very specific format. She has a header and then goes straight into the topic. Again, no fluff. It reminds me of the differences between English papers and History papers. English teachers like when you weave your thesis into your paragraphs, but in history papers the teacher wants you to state your thesis as your first sentence and then go straight into it. I felt the same way reading this. She introduced what she wanted to say, then went into it.
Academic writing is a lotttt to handle.
The good news about this scholarly article is that it's not about science! (even though I love science) So I found that it was easier to read than I was expecting due to my bad experience. But there were some things that made it challenging. The language first of all is pretty difficult. It's not one of those casual reads. Also, all the information is just really dense. The article was like 11 pages of dense information. Kind of scary.
I do kind of enjoy the fact that the information isn't subjective though. I like the way Chomsky writes subjectively, but I also feel like sometimes objective writing is nice because you get straight to the point. There's no fluff. Also, it's interesting that we aren't the primary audience, and yet we can read it and take something from it.
Teresa Thonney writes with a LOT of references to other scholarly writing. In her second point titled "Academic Writers State the Value of Their Work and Announce the Plan for Their Papers," she includes tons of article titles/subjects and she uses these to appeal to logos and even a little ethos because she uses such a big variety of article subjects that it makes her seem very knowledgeable, even though I realize she's only introducing them to prove her point.
I also noticed that because this is a very objective, scholarly/academic article, it follows a very specific format. She has a header and then goes straight into the topic. Again, no fluff. It reminds me of the differences between English papers and History papers. English teachers like when you weave your thesis into your paragraphs, but in history papers the teacher wants you to state your thesis as your first sentence and then go straight into it. I felt the same way reading this. She introduced what she wanted to say, then went into it.
Academic writing is a lotttt to handle.
I totally agree with the fact that academic writings can be very thick, and some subjects (such as science) can be harder to understand for others. Also how certain subjects warrant more fluff than others. Academic writing is just plain unpleasant unless you're truly invested in what you're reading.
ReplyDeleteAcademic writing IS a lotttt to handle.
ReplyDeleteI also value the objective structure of these types of papers. The authors are very clear about their claims and then they provide the evidence to support it instead of mixing claims and evidence and anecdotes and analysis all together in a persuasive way. In fact, they way Thonney persuades is by being to objective.
Different audience. Different purpose. Different strategies (or conventions). Nice post, Julianna.
I know what you mean when you say it's hard to sort through all the stats and data in scientific writing because I had to do the same thing. Although I like that Thonney gets straight to the point, in a longer writing, a little fluff could help give the reader a mental break and process what the author is trying to convey.
ReplyDeleteI really like how loose and light you kept this post! You have to keep it light when we're talking about something like academic writing. I also like how you talked about your own experiences with academic writings and I felt your pain while reading about reading research papers, haha. Overall, I liked your post a lot. Continue keeping it casual, thank you!
ReplyDelete